hello all,
we have been back from our missions trip for sometime now, and I am gonna give you some details about what went down in the streets of vancouver. we started off by going to a church called new beginnings for 5 days at the beginning and 5 days at the end of the trip. while we were there we had the opportunity to do many things. these included helping in the tutoring program that happens there. we also got to help with all age groups for sunday school. other ministries that happened there included helping people move out, or clean their house, providing furniture for the people that need it, and helping fun a food bank. we also had the opportunity to guide the youth on friday night youth group. in between our two stints at new beginnings, we went to the Potters Place mission right on East Hastings street, the heart of poverty in downtown vancouver. while we were at this mission we helped run the morning and evening services. this included running a half hour of worship and a half hour of a sermon. i got to do my sermon at the evening service. in between the two services we had the opportunity to go on prayer walks and hand out food to the homeless people. that is a quick run down of what we did while on the missions trip
a funny memory that i had while on this trip was at one point on a prayer walk i stopped to talk to a homeless man. and i asked him if he needed anything prayed for. he asked me to pray for his harvest. so i began to pray, and about half way through my prayer i came to the realization that this guy was not a farmer, and the only other people i know that need a harvest, are people in grow ops. so that is the time that i prayed for a mans weed harvest.
i found it very difficult to approach people and trust that God would soften both of our hearts and that I would be able to help them through prayer and witness to them. this was difficult because i have always been someone who does not approach people and talk to them about God. this was a struggle but i soon got over it when God was able to give me the strength that was needed.
i really saw God use my team mates to reach out to those who i could not approach. he really used people that i would never expect to talk to homeless people to help lead people to Christ. it was a really cool experience. and God has used so many of us that it really helped with understanding not only the culture that we were immersed in, but also in understanding God and understanding ourselves more.
i really saw God soften my heart on this trip. before coming here, I always assumed that homeless were there because they chose to get addicted to drugs and wasted all their money on drugs. but that is not the case. most of the people that i talked to had actually had a bad run of luck in their lives and just ended up their. so now i have a deep compassion for those who are on the street. granted some of those homeless people were actually their because of the drugs, but that is not the point.
